Dispel Evil Damage

Dispel Evil Damage is a type of Special Damage that can be delivered by various units as part of their Melee Attacks and/or Ranged Attacks. An attack delivering Dispel Evil Damage stands a good chance of killing an enemy figure outright, regardless of the target's Defense score. However, unlike similar types of damage, Dispel Evil Damage only works against creatures associated with the Chaos or Death realms. Other units will suffer no harm from Dispel Evil Damage.

When a valid target is struck by Dispel Evil Damage, it does not make any Defense rolls against it. Instead, one Figure (for each attacker) in the target unit makes a single Resistance roll. The result of this roll determines whether the figure is killed instantly or left completely unharmed.

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Dispel Evil Damage forces its target to make one Resistance roll for each Figure delivering Dispel Evil Damage - with each failed roll killing off one Figure in the enemy unit. Dispel Evil Damage will only ever affect Chaos and Death creatures (including Chaos Channeled and Undead units). It will do no harm to other unit types. The Undead are particularly vulnerable to Dispel Evil Damage.

Whenever an attack containing a Dispel Evil Damage component strikes a valid target on the battlefield (see below), either oneFigure within the target unit (ability, item power), or allFigures (spell) in the unit must make a die roll - resulting in a random number between 1 and 10. This number is then compared to the target's Resistance score, which is simultaneously penalized (see below).

Any Figure that rolls a number higher than its unit's penalized Resistance score is immediately killed off - regardless of how many Hit Points it has remaining or how high its Defense score is. The figure is simply destroyed. If all remaining Figures in the unit have failed their Resistance rolls simultaneously this way, then the entire unit is destroyed.

Figures that roll equal to or lower than their units' penalized Resistance are completely unharmed by this Dispel Evil Damage.

While it is forcing the target to roll against its own Resistance score, Dispel Evil Damage also inflicts a certain Resistance penalty on the target, which depends on the target unit's type.

Against Fantastic Units from the Chaos and Death realms, as well as against any Chaos Channeled units, Dispel Evil Damage inflicts -4. This means that most targets will have a very hard time resisting the effect. Only units with 14 or higher are completely immune to Dispel Evil Damage - since they cannot possibly fail their rolls.

Against the Undead, Dispel Evil Damage inflicts -9 (despite at least one in-game tooltip claiming more than this), which should ensure at least one Figure's destruction in most cases.

Finally, any Undead unit, regardless of which type or Realm it belonged to before becoming Undead, will be hurt by Dispel Evil Damage. These units suffer -9 while attempting to block this damage, making them extremely vulnerable.

All other units, including Normal Units, Heroes and Fantastic Creatures from the Life, Nature and Sorcery realms are invalid targets. Though an attack delivering Dispel Evil Damage can be targeted at them, these units will never suffer any harm from this damage at all.

Furthermore, if Dispel Evil Damage inflicts a -4 Resistance penalty on its target, a target with 14 or higher cannot possibly fail its rolls and thus will never be harmed. If the target is Undead, it requires at least 19 Resistance to become completely immune - which is extremely rare if not impossible to achieve.

Note that these immunities will only block the Dispel Evil Damage component of an attack. If the attack also delivers any Melee Damage, Ranged Damage or any other type of damage, that damage may or may not go through the target's immunities unimpeded.

Dispel Evil is an UncommonCombat Instant from the Life realm. For the base cost of 25, it will instantly execute an attack delivering Dispel Evil Damage to allFigures of a chosen target unit.

The damage effect behaves exactly as explained above in this article - forcing each figure in the target unit to Resist or die. The Resistance penalties inflicted by the spell are also identical to those described above.

A Touch Attack occurs simultaneously with the exchange of Melee Damage between the attacker and the target. As a result, any enemy Figures that fail their roll will die only at the end of the combat round, and may still get a chance to inflict their own Melee Damage and/or Touch Attacks at the Angel. Thus, Dispel Evil does not reduce retaliatory damage, and should be used carefully.

The Dispel Evil Damage inflicted by an Angel behaves the same way as described above in this article - forcing one figure (since the Angel is a single figure itself) in the target unit to Resist or die. The Resistance penalties inflicted by the spell are also identical to those described above.

The Dispel Evil Damage inflicted by a "Holy Avenger" weapon behaves the same way as described above in this article - forcing one figure (since all Heroes are single figures) in the target unit to Resist or die. The Resistance penalties inflicted by the spell are also identical to those described above.

Heroes with the Thrown ability, when equipped with a "Holy Avenger" Axe (but not other weapon types) will gain two chances for Dispel Evil on every voluntary attack: once with their Thrown Attack, and then again with their Melee Attack. Unfortunately this does not work when counterattacking.

During the custom Item Crafting process, the "Holy Avenger" bonus is only available if you possess at least 3 LifeSpellbooks. Naturally, it's always possible to find a weapon containing this bonus as a reward for defeating Encounters.

The Hero's attack will only deliver Dispel Evil Damage while the Hero is holding the enchanted item. If the item is removed or lost, the Hero's attack no longer delivers Dispel Evil Damage.